In heading a research lab focussing on machine learning and its application in robotics, biomimetics and sensory data processing, my goal is to develop the techniques to model and use (human) movement.

on publishing

In June 2012 I resigned as editor of Neural Networks (Elsevier). Having worked with Neural Networks for almost 20 years, I have come to realise that the publication model propagated by behind-paywall publishers no longer combines with my own views of publication DOs and DONTs. In particular, I have decided to move away from classical publication methods towards open access publishing, now that such alternatives are maturing.

After so many years of research and publishing, it is clear that only a peer-to-peer (double-open) review system with open access to the publications can be fair and unbiased.

I am currently still editor of Biological Cybernetics, as the open access model is being supported by Springer. However, also that large publishing house will have to rethink their approach to scientific publication before long.

Reviewing is good. But open publication is an alternative. My blog is an attempt to solve, for my own benefit, this publication issue.

Abstract: In this paper we introduce a method for model-free monocular visual guidance of a robot arm. The robot arm, with a single camera in its end-effector, should be positioned above a target, with a changing pan and tilt, which is placed against a textured background. It is shown that a trajectory can be planned in visual space by using components of the optic flow, and this trajectory can be translated to joint torques by a self-learning neural network. No model of the robot, camera, or environment is used. The method reaches a high grasping accuracy after only a few trials.